Hi Steve: Seems like are getting a lot of replies but not much regarding your actual question. Let me give you the short answer. All plating is porous including nickel. Think of a sponge. Depending on the type of plating chemistry and additives used this can be minimized by creating denser less porous deposits. The thin nickel plating will not be thick or dense enough to prevent the copper from migrating or diffusing up thru the nickel and into the gold. Regards Michael Barmuta Staff Engineer Fluke Corp. Everett WA 425-446-6076 -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask] Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 4:32 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] IPC ENIG SPECIFICATION Thanks for the prompt reply. I can do the gold calculations - lots of stuff on the tech-net telling me how to do that. We have not seen any solderability issues. I would still like an explanation of the reasoning behind the minimum nickel thickness( besides a keypad type application). Regards Steve Kelly> Steve, > > I will likely solder quite well, but the gold is quite thick for > soldering to without incurring the wrath of gold embrittlement. I would > not be so concerned about the thin nickel as the overabundance of gold. > > If the gold were nice and soft, it would be nice for gold ball bonding! > But, the nickel is quite thin. > > If the numbers are correct, you did not receive ENIG - have them sent > back > > Steve C > > -----Original Message----- > From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask] > Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 9:31 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: [TN] IPC ENIG SPECIFICATION > > Hi All, > I have a question about this specification. Obviously when the > technical > gurus wrote this they had good reasons for specifying the nickel at a > minimum of 118 microinches. One of our customers recently received some > parts from the far east. The print called for ENIG but the parts came in > with approx. 20 microinches of nickel and approx. 40 microinches of > gold. > My question is what are the reliability/solderability concerns on low > nickel. Thanks in advance. 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